What on Earth can we talk about?

We do both! Companionable silence and talking about anything and everything.

We volunteer (separately), I meet friends, DH goes to the football with DS1 so we have lots to talk about when we get together at dinner time. We chunter about the news, do the crossword, pass on any village gossip we may have gathered and we have a large family (and 2 cats!!) to talk about

maryeliza - we have amazing dgc too!

Politics (we often shout at the radio in unison). What we’ve just read in the paper. Plans for holidays and other social events. People we care about, especially if we are worried about them. How utterly amazing the dgc are.

Jalima it isn’t that they aren’t listening, it’s because WE
Mumble,
Are in a different room ( like our house is so vast)
Have slightly turned our head away
HE has the telly on too loud
or that he wasn’t ready for me to speak!
Nothing to do with the fact that he has switched off.
We went to a friends for a meal this weekend, I went into the sitting room with his wife for a cosy chat, the DHs went on to the computer, my DH comes in later and says that the other DH had gone to sleep right in front of him and was still asleep! YES! Now he knows how it feels...

We talk about family & friends, the news, politics, our future plans, TV, interesting things on the internet and our cats . Although, tbf, it's probably me talking for 75% of the time.

I often have to repeat things about three times because he is not listening properly so that takes up quite a bit of time

As per harrigran and merlotgran we chat all the time but also collapse into the companionable silences especially since DH has discovered a computer game that he actually enjoys. The only thing about that wretched game is just how long it took him to find that it had a pause button!

Yes it is companionable silence but funnily enough when I'm with lady friends/my sister we talk non stop. After all these years we know each views on everything and if anything crops up DH reminds me of a poem of Pam Ayres about her DH "wind him up and watch him go". DH taught for years and I think he's used to a captive audience and doesn't notice glazed eyes. . . .

It's called companionable silence.
which is preferable to having a tiff

We talk about each other's interests, sometimes I can look a bit glazed but at other times it's quite interesting.

DH and I have been together for almost 55 years and we chat all the time, anything and everything is discussed. We talk about what so and so posted on FB, I tell him the funny anecdotes off GN. We talk about the family and the old days especially the history of our town as we are members of an Antiquarian society. News and TV programmes are discussed at length except for soaps and football which we watch on our own.

It's called companionable silence.

Takes many years of practice